


The Sun's Bride

by wingsofthenight



Series: Voices Unheard [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Culture Shock, F/M, Pre-Canon, living with the knowledge that you will never be fully welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:46:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26050603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingsofthenight/pseuds/wingsofthenight
Summary: For years, when Daenerys Martell- always Martell,neverTargaryen, not here in Dorne- had thought of her life, certain days always stuck out to her.
Relationships: Daenerys Martell/Maron Martell
Series: Voices Unheard [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891072
Comments: 9
Kudos: 18





	The Sun's Bride

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the start of a series of one shots focusing on some of the women that get absolutely no voice in canon, though not all of them because we would be here until the heat death of the universe trying to get through them all :D
> 
> Sorry, I'm just a little bitter...
> 
> But seriously, there will be more. I do have several of the historical Targaryen women in mind because they're quite possibly the worst case of this, but there will probably be others.

For years, when Daenerys Martell- always Martell, _never_ Targaryen, not here in Dorne- had thought of her life, certain days always stuck out to her.

The day that Naerys, her mother, died.

(Though she had grown up with her brother and his family on Dragonstone instead of at the Red Keep and to her extreme guilt had always thought of Myriah first when the word “mother” came to mind, that had still been a blow she wished she had never had to endure. Her mother had deserved far better than the life she had been forced into…)

The day that her sire finally died.

(The longer he had survived, the more she had worried for Daeron, Myriah, and their children. He had never had much to do with her and so she had been free from his negative attentions, but that did not matter to her, not when he so clearly hated his own son and heir- for as much as Naerys had probably wished that Aemon was the father of her children, he had clearly not been. Instead of grief, she had felt nothing short of relief when the news came to her.)

The day that she married Maron.

(How bright that day had been, how excited she had been. Myriah had spoken to her of her younger brother and she had even received a few letters from him. She had been filled with hope that they would be happy, that they could form a partnership like she had witnessed in her blood brother and the sister of her heart, for that more than anything else had been what she had wanted in her marriage.)

The day that she had arrived in Dorne.

(She had not been naïve enough to believe that she would be welcomed with open arms, but the silence she was greeted with… at that moment, she knew for certain that she did not belong there, that like she had been warned the people did not want her there, that they wished Maron had found a bride among their own people- or at the very least, a bride that wasn’t a Targaryen princess.)

The day she realized that she had never been the first to hold her husband’s heart.

(She knew that it had been likely that she was not the first to have been in his bed given how he was over a decade older than her, but the fact that he had once had a paramour, a lady of noble birth, before that… he had ended the relationship over a year before they had wed and the both of them had reiterated that they felt nothing more than friendship towards each other now, but knowing that he could have- _should_ have had a bride from his own nation, one that would not refuse to sit on Nymeria’s throne like previous consorts had for she was not descended from the dragons that had forced her from her homeland…)

The day Maron unveiled the Water Gardens to her.

(That day, coming so soon after the realization that her husband should have felt able to choose his bride from his own people, had at least relieved some of her worries. A man that was completely indifferent to her would not give her such a gift, and, as she had eventually realized, indifference was far from what he felt for her.)

The day that her son, her husband’s heir was born.

(She was relieved that it was a boy. She had been told multiple times that it did not matter what gender her child was, for Dorne held that the eldest child was the heir even if it was a girl, but she had worried that she would favor a son over a daughter as heir.

Even above that… the relief she had felt when Garris only looked like a Martell and not of her family could never be put into words. Perhaps the shape of his face reminded her of Daeron, but that was it.)

The day that word came to them that Daemon Blackfyre had risen up against her brother, and that the Yronwoods had joined his cause.

(The Yronwoods had been the only Dornish house to join his cause, thank the Warrior. They had no doubt assumed that other Houses would join them, but unlike those damned traitors the others were smart enough to know that Blackfyre would never give Dorne anything like what Daeron did. That traitorous house had been surrounded and forced to surrender unconditionally, and had been forced to give hostages to both Sunspear and King’s Landing.

Even worse in her opinion was the lies Blackfyre’s supporters had spouted, of the _forbidden love_ they had held for each other. No, Blackfyre had only ever coveted her beauty. He had always dismissed her as a child, thinking her to be nothing more than a simple girl that would never amount to much. His blasted gaze had only landed on her when he saw her once she had entered her teenage years and had started to grow into her beauty. Why would she ever want a man like that, one who only cared about her as an ornament, as something pretty to hang off his arm when he wanted to let her out?

They had managed to show the truth, that Maron was the _only_ man she had ever and would ever love, to Dorne at the very least, but the fact that north of their borders they believed those lies… At times like these, she fully understood the Dornish’s disgust towards them.)

And now… now there was the day her eldest son arrived back to Sunspear with a woman, one of the Orphans of the Greenblood, that he wished to take to wife.

It was not that she was unhappy for Garris, nor that this Reza seemed to be a terrible option for his consort. It was just…

“Neri?”

Daenerys started when she heard that nickname that only three people had ever called her, immediately whirling around from where she was standing on their balcony. “Maron,” she said, staring at her husband. Usually she relaxed when she saw him, but today…

Maron walked forward until he was standing next to her, his hand going around her waist where he always kept it when he was given half a chance. “Garris is worried that you do not approve of his choice in a bride.”

She snorted, looking back out at the sands. “I am not the one whose approval he needs. He shall be Prince of Dorne one day, though hopefully not for years.”

“Perhaps it is not the approval he needs, but it is the one of the ones that he longs for above all else.”

She sighed, tapping her hands against the railing and attempting to gather her thoughts.

Finally, after a couple of minutes, she said, “Lady Reza is a good choice for his consort. She is of as pure Rhoynish blood as is possible, sending a clear message to the people that will one day be his subjects that he is Dornish, and that his mother’s blood has not made him forget that.”

“Neri-”

“My love, I am not disparaging myself. I am simply stating a fact.” She said quietly.

She truly was. Dorne welcomed her now and considered her one of them, that she knew, but if they thought that she had led her son, their next Ruling Prince, to forget what that position meant…

Maron knew she was telling the truth, and could say nothing against it. Instead, he tightened his arm around her to give her as much comfort as he could before asking, “There is something else you wish to say.”

She sighed. “I am worried of what the northern lands will think. Dorne will think nothing of Garris marrying an Orphan, especially given the position her father holds as one of their leaders, but the rest of the continent…”

“They are not the ones we must worry about,” came her husband’s immediate and somewhat sharp reply. After a moment he sighed, squeezing her waist for a brief second in a silent apology. “Perhaps Garris marrying a woman from one of our bannermen would have been more ideal, at least where those north of the Red Mountains are concerned… but you know our son as well as I do. He no doubt weighed his options and acted accordingly.”

Privately, she thought that he was incorrect. Maron knew their son better than she did- knew _all_ of their children better than she ever could, for they were being raised as Dornish, as citizens of the country they were in. As much as she wished sometimes… she wasn’t Dornish. As much as Dorne welcomed her, as much as she held Maron’s love… there were some things she would never understand.

(She wondered if this was how Myriah always felt.)

She sighed again. “Reza seems to be a wonderful girl. Tomorrow, I will start to show her around our home, and give her some idea of what her role will eventually be.”

Maron kissed her on the head. “Thank you, my love.”

She smiled up at him. Yes, she had her reservations, but she knew she would need time to form her own opinion of things.

It was what she had been doing her entire life, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> So. Daenerys Martell.
> 
> To me, she's a fascinating character to think about, and one that we know literally nothing about other than the year she was born and the year she married. I mean, her marriage brought Dorne into the Seven Kingdoms, and just thinking about what kind of welcome she would get is fascinating. Remember that the "Conquest of Dorne" (which I'm not sure can technically be called a conquest? It lasted like two years at most...) would still be in living memory, and Daenerys looks very obviously Targaryen.
> 
> I got the idea that Maron had a lover before her from Ramzes, though here he didn't father any children not on his wife. It just makes a lot of sense- he was likely at least ten years older than her, though we don't know for sure.
> 
> The Yronwoods, according to the wiki, really did declare for the Blackfyre cause, and they're the only Dornish house that did as far as we know. What they were trying to accomplish is beyond me, since seriously, I doubt that Daemon Blackfyre would be willing to let Dorne keep what Daeron and Maron negotiated.
> 
> And I'm sorry, I really don't see Daenerys being in love with Blackfyre. I don't care what GRRM says, I don't see it. I mean, apparently she never showed any sort of grief when he died. And if they did love each other... that actually reeks of grooming on his part, given how he would have to have been so much older than her. I'm sorry, but I'm not about to believe that it's some great love story.
> 
> We know that their eldest was a son, but we have no idea what his name was or who he married. I'm pretty sure that if we ever find out anything about him he won't have married an Orphan, but I'm past caring about canon at this point. It's not like he's been doing anything with Dorne anyway...


End file.
